Published by Swiss James on 04 Jan 2009 at 12:36 pm
New Year’s Eve on a plane
Coming back from the UK to Shanghai I ended up having to fly on December 31st.
Setting off at 2pm from Heathrow and arriving in Shanghai at 9am on January 1st, that I probably hit the midnight boundary somewhere near Irkutzk (although it didn’t look like they were having much of a party down there).
You might think that with all of the free-flowing booze and party-loving cabin crew it’s good fun to spend NYE on a plane. You’d be wrong- what happens is that there’s an announcement in Chinese
Ladies and Gentlemen, the time in Shanghai is now 0:15 on January 1st 2009. Happy new year!
but nothing in English.
Everyone goes to sleep with their headphones on. The end.
It’s OK- I drank enough over Christmas anyway.
Aha, there’s a Chinese new year (Spring Festival) on the way anyway
I think New Year’s Eve is the most overrated of holidays anyways. I spent this one at home with a pizza from Papa John’s and Slumdog Millionaire on DVD.
I’m pretty sure I’ve only had fun 3 times in my life on New Year’s Eve, and once I was held up at knifepoint in San Francisco, so that outweighs the 3 fun times.
Steward- I’ll be out of the country again for that one! Going to Thailand
T- yeah I kind of agree, it takes so much effort to go out on NYE, getting into clubs, catching taxis etc. and all because people who normally don’t like going out, feel like they have to.
Plus there’s pressure on it to be a great night out, too much thought about where you’re going to be at midnight etc.
I wasn’t too unhappy to be missing it- especially hearing about the 2.5 hours it took Emma to get home from the Bund.
they didnt give you more snacks as usual or offered champagne as a choice for alcoholic beverage?????
what a bummer!
no, nothing special at all.
I wonder what happens if you fly on Christmas day?
That sure is different than the story most have described about their New Year’s time period. It makes sense that there is quite a limited ability for celebration while on a plane. Pointing this out also reminds us that there are people that miss certain holidays, due to work or other reasons, and that we may end up missing a holiday celebration in the future, so the current one should be appreciated.
HEY! i also spent new years eve on a plane!
I flew from Vancouver to Shanghai
When it was 12am vancouver time the captain counted down from 10 and no one understood what was going on.
Baaa humbug!
Did a Singapore Airlines flight SIN-PER on Christmas eve. The girls (well, catering contractors) were really Singapore Girls.
Moist turkey and tender vegies, mashed potato – the works, followed by plum pudding with lovely raisins and apparently real custard with ice cream on the side, followed by an announcement by the Captain that unlimited champaigne was available for everyone as we hit Christmas morning in the dark.
Not bad “off the cart”.
However, being a staunch Aussie I’ll take Qantas any day despite the exploding oxygen cylinders leading to a huge hole in the lower deck, No. 2 engine failure and unexpected avionics disconnection of the auto-pilot = turn back.
Hmmmm, they’re getting worse. Never should have outsourced engineering & maintainence, keeping it at home means jobs for us.
Left hand hand SQ, right QA – so hard to choose !
But, that’s Xmas, not New Year.
@ “somewhere near Irkutzk”. That place would have the same amount of visible lights as a Google Earth on North Korea at night.
J=Z you know me :-)
I wonder what happens if you fly on Christmas day?
You run the risk of taking out Santa and his sled team. Reindeer & Teddy Bear bits spread across eastern Europe. The HORROR!!!
Jamieson- are you serious? Who is whipping up a batch of custard in the galley?! Since when is the captain calling the drinks orders?!?
That sounds like a dream flight- when oh when oh when will I get to fly SQ?
Eric- don’t be ridiculous- jolly old St Nick has had panels installed on his sleigh to provide radar visibility since the early 60s, and his flight paths are all cleared with the FAA.
Company policy I suppose. Doesn’t take a genius chef to ladle out 300 litres of pre-made and re-warmed custard in the galleys onto 400 Xmas dinners :-)
Santa already filed a flight plan and was tracked by Australian Air Services radar once he entered Australian Airspace , and we got him as an incoming target 6,000 km far away on our personally built over the horizon radar by the Department of Silly marches- walks (Defence).
Peaceful, of course. Absolutely ! (coughs into hand).
We don’t fancy another Darwin, Port Headland, Broome bombing with somewanted gifts with our pants down, waiting for Zeros.. err sorry Santa.
Our kids want more than Zero :-)
Z.
You could have enjoyed 3 New Years…assuming they had the standard air map showing on tvs, it surely would have displayed time at destination, time at departure place and time at current location and all would have flicked past 12:00 during your flight…